Edward Thomas "Tom" Hardy (born 15 September 1977) is an English actor of stage and screen. He is perhaps best known for playing the title character in the 2009 British film Bronson, and for his roles in the films Star Trek Nemesis and Inception.

Early years

Hardy, an only child, was born in Hammersmith and raised in East Sheen, London. His mother, Anne, is an artist and painter of Irish Catholic descent, and his father, Edward "Chips" Hardy, is an ad and comedy writer.Hardy studied at Reeds School, Tower House School, Richmond Drama School, and subsequently at the Drama Centre London. He began his career in war dramas, winning the part of United States Army Private John Janovec in the award-winning HBO and BBC miniseries Band of Brothers. He made his feature film debut in Ridley Scott's 2001 war thriller Black Hawk Down.

Career

In 2002, Hardy appeared in the independent film Dot the i, sharing the bill with Gael García Bernal. He then travelled to North Africa for Simon: An English Legionnaire, a story of the French Foreign Legion. In the same year, he gained some heavy international exposure as the Reman Praetor Shinzon, a clone of USS Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) in Star Trek Nemesis. He returned to England to feature in the 2003 thriller LD 50 Lethal Dose.

Hardy was awarded the 2003 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer for his performances in Blood and In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings performed at the Royal Court Theatre and Hampstead Theatre. He was also nominated for a 2004 Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer of 2003 in a Society of London Theatre Affiliate for his performance in the aforementioned production of In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings.

Hardy appeared in the 2005 BBC miniseries The Virgin Queen as Robert Dudley, a childhood friend of Elizabeth I. The miniseries portrays them as having a platonic, though highly romantic, affair throughout her reign over England during the 16th century. Hardy featured in the Richard Fell adaptation of the 1960s sci-fi series A for Andromeda, on BBC Four.

In 2007, he appeared in the BBC Two drama based on a true story - Stuart: A Life Backwards. He played the lead role of Stuart Shorter, a homeless man who had been subjected to years of abuse and whose death was possibly suicide. In September 2008, he appeared in director Guy Ritchie's London gangster film, RocknRolla. He played the role of gay gangster Handsome Bob, one of the members of the criminal gang the Wild Bunch, led by One Two (Gerard Butler), whom Bob has a crush on. Hardy will reprise the role in Ritchie's sequel The Real RocknRolla.

In early 2009, Hardy starred in the film Bronson, about the real-life prisoner Charles Bronson, who has spent most of his adult life in solitary confinement. For the film, he put on three stone of muscle.

In June 2009, Hardy starred in the Martina Cole written 4-part TV drama The Take on Sky One as a drugs and alcohol fuelled gangster. The role gained him a Best Actor nomination at the 2009 Crime Thriller Awards.

In August 2009, he appeared in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, playing the part of Heathcliff, the classic love character who falls in love with his childhood friend Cathy (played by Charlotte Riley), "the love that destroyed everything it touched". It was even suggested by tabloid paper The Sun that he began a relationship with Charlotte Riley shortly after finishing work on The Take, and that he left his partner of two years and mother of his infant son to be with Riley. Riley has disputed this rumor in interviews.

In early 2010, Hardy starred in The Long Red Road at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.The play was written by Brett C Leonard and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hardy won some good reviews for his portrayal of Sam, an alcoholic trying to drink away his past.

Hardy played the son of Paddy Conlon (Nick Nolte) in the as-yet-unreleased 2010 film Warrior, about a washed-up mixed martial artist. He will be the main protagonist in the film. He starred as Eames in Christopher Nolan's science fiction thriller Inception.

In June 2010, Hardy announced on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross that he will play the title role in a next edition of Mad Max.

As of October 2010, he is up for a lead role in Christopher Nolan's third Batman movie, and is likely to potray a villain.
Personal life

Tom married Sarah Ward in 1999, but they divorced some time later. He has a son, Louis Hardy, with ex-girlfriend Rachael Speed. In July 2010, Hardy proposed to actress Charlotte Riley after a year of dating.

Hardy also battled alcoholism and a ***k addiction in his early- to mid-twenties, but has been sober since 2003.

Inception's Tom Hardy admitted in an interview to licking on a few pairs of peen lips back in the day, and now he's telling Men's Health UK about his days as a drunked up whorey mess of all messes. Tom really knows to crawl into my heart with words. Tom plumped up his lips and cooed:

"I thought I'd have a little bit of a party, and I'd end up high and frightened, in places that scared me. In a blackout I could end up anywhere. I might wake up somewhere the other side of London, or in another country. Or in bed with someone I didn't know, not knowing how I got there. Bleeding. This was on a daily basis. And I was going to work. I didn't want to appear rock 'n' roll. I didn't want anyone to know I was out of control, but I couldn't hide it. Eventually, the body gives up. My body told me. I was completely kaput. I was lucky I didn't get hepatitis or AIDS."

Frightened? Scared? Blacking out? Bleeding? Waking up in a different country? Was Tom partying with Amy Wino? Or maybe he went out with Gerard Butler, because when you go out with that bitch you will end up nekkid on the floor of a jail cell somewhere surrounded by a bunch of foreign police officers spraying you down with funny smelling liquid. It's guaranteed!
dlisted

__________________There's a whole ocean of oil under our feet! No one can get at it except for me!

If former equal opportunity fuc*er Tom Hardy makes you wet swoon in or around all the parts that matter, you and this video of him popping that as* will be very very very VERY happy together. Just make sure to use a computer condom and wipe your seat down afterwards.
dlisted

__________________There's a whole ocean of oil under our feet! No one can get at it except for me!

On the left we have Tom Hardy making those arm veins bulge like Kirstie Alley's colon after feeding time while carrying grocery bags home in Vancouver. And on the right we have Ryan Gosling eating the fuc* out of an apple on the set of his movie in Los Angeles. It really is the simple things in life that give you a reason to take your pants off during a work day.

The only way these pictures could be better is if Ryan Gosling was biting into Tom Hardy's succulent nalgas instead of that apple.......

Actually, the image of Ryan Gosling Cape Fear-ing Tom Hardy's as* cheek isn't one that makes me want to close the drapes. Why do I have to ruin everything?!
Dlisted

__________________There's a whole ocean of oil under our feet! No one can get at it except for me!

Easily one of the most diverse and talented actors of our generation.
His performances are always fearless, brave and unself conscious.
Stuart A Life Backwards is heartbreaking and astonisingly real and he even manages to make Bronson about one of the most violent UK convicts ever, quite funny.
Looking forward to any upcoming work from him.

__________________'Our lives are made up exclusively of what we are wise enough to keep in our hearts, and of what we are brave enough to throw away'

__________________we are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams. wandering by lone sea breakers and sitting by desolate streams. world losers and world forsakers, on whom the pale moon gleams. yet we are the movers and shakers of the world for ever it seems

He's really good actor, I watched Star Trek Nemesis 2 days ago and he's really good in it, astonishing screen presence for someone so young.
And I also liked him in Marie Antoinette and Sweeney Todd (not the crappy Tim Burton version).